I’ve been obsessed with full, fluffy eyebrows for years, ever since I met Taylor Frankel, the co-founder of Nudestix. (Seriously, go look at her brows.) After trying pretty much every soap brow-like product as of late, it turns out, I just needed brow lamination to get the “boy brows” of my dreams. Yes, many of the products on the market work, as does soap and a spoolie. But in my experience, the pushed-up hair falls after a few hours no matter how hard I try.

This might be because my brows can get a bit unruly. They almost curl in some areas, stick straight in the wrong direction and overall just fall flat down. I’m not short on hair (for better or for worse) but I am short on style. That’s why I was so excited to finally hop on the brow lamination wagon with René de la Garza, founder of Brow Down Studio in Los Angeles. He’s groomed the brows of Cardi B, Lizzo and Noah Cyrus, plus he was one of the first in LA to offer the service, so I knew I was in good hands.

In between making TikToks, René gave me the scoop on what the treatment is exactly. “Brow lamination is great for those whose brows grow downward or in multiple directions because the treatment smoothes the brows in one uniform direction,” he says. Yup, that basically describes me. “It’s a chemical service that breaks down the inner protein chains of the hair,” he continues. René uses Thuya Brow Lamination products, which he calls the “highest quality system on the market from Spain.” The 30-year-old formula is dermatologist and ophthalmologist tested to be safe for hair and skin.

Source: Instagram

The treatment lasts about 4-6 weeks and is pretty easy to keep fresh. René recommends not getting brows wet for 24 hours after the service and then applying castor oil at night to keep the hair lifted and hydrated. No crunchy brows here. The actual service is pretty fast and I loved my results right after the formula set in. René waxed and shaped my brows as well, whipping my quarantine caterpillars into shape. (Seriously, it was getting rough.)

At first, the results might seem a little intense but after 24 hours, I was able to brush the hair up and out as I pleased. You have a lot of control after a lamination process. You can easily brush them up or down and they just stay like that. It’s pretty awesome. Plus, even though I have a lot of hair, I do have some sparse areas. René recommended a little brow powder to fill them in if needed. But it turned out, I didn’t feel like I needed any additional color. The lamination process seemed to cover up any holes in my brows.

Brow lamination is also a more affordable process than say, microblading. (To be transparent, my service was complimentary.) It generally costs somewhere between $50 and $200 depending on where you’re located. And you’ll definitely save money on eyebrow products. Do you know how many different brow gels I have?! Not to mention the time-saver.

Elizabeth Denton.

If you’re saving up for brow lamination or just want to DIY, I don’t recommend an at-home lamination kit. It’s just too many chemicals too close to your eyes. Stick to fluffy brow products, such as René’s own Brow Naturale lamination to go ($16 at Brow Down Studio) or even some Got2b Glued Spiking Hair Wax ($11.99 at Amazon). There are tons of options to get the look because luckily, full brows aren’t going anywhere.